{"schema_version": 1, "id": "green-bay-wi-msa/information-technology/2026-10", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 187, "label": "Green Bay, WI MSA", "slug": "green-bay-wi-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-10", "public_after": "2026-10-01", "frozen_at": "2026-11-03T03:11:10.093850+00:00", "headline": "Green Bay IT pay splits: security climbs, network engineering falls.", "headline_summary": "Cybersecurity Analyst and Systems Administrator advertised pay rose significantly in Green Bay this month even as Network Engineer pay fell to $83,968, against a national trend moving the opposite direction.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Brown County unemployment", "value": "3.4%", "context": "vs 4.2% national rate, August 2026"}, {"label": "Network Engineer advertised pay", "value": "$83,968", "context": "Down significantly vs national $115,757, rising"}, {"label": "Wisconsin real wage growth", "value": "-5.1%", "context": "Steepest decline among 50 states, YoY"}, {"label": "Tech sector layoffs (national, YTD)", "value": "133,417", "context": "Already exceeds full-year 2025 total"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Security and sysadmin pay are outrunning network engineering locally.", "body": "Cybersecurity Analyst and Systems Administrator advertised pay both moved up significantly in Green Bay this month, while Network Engineer pay fell significantly even as the national figure rose. Divergence like this may signal employers are concentrating hiring dollars on defense and operations roles while deprioritizing network-specific hires, worth testing against actual requisition data."}, {"headline": "Metro tightness is colliding with a thin recruit pipeline.", "body": "Brown County unemployment sits a full point below the national rate, and local reporting already flags thinning pipelines in public-sector technical roles. IT leaders competing for the same shrinking pool of infrastructure and security talent should expect longer time-to-fill even where advertised pay is rising."}, {"headline": "IT Project Manager pay softening locally bucks the security trend.", "body": "IT Project Manager advertised pay fell moderately in Green Bay to $111,823 while most other IT roles tracked here rose, a pattern consistent with Wisconsin's broader non-farm payroll contraction and conservative headcount posture in project-heavy functions. Worth watching whether this reflects fewer project-based engagements or a shift toward contract and fractional PM staffing."}, {"headline": "Remote scarcity narrows the build-vs-outsource calculus.", "body": "With 98% of Wisconsin technology job postings requiring in-person work, IT leaders have limited ability to recruit distributed talent to fill local gaps, strengthening the case for outsourcing routine infrastructure or support functions to regions where remote arrangements are standard."}], "local_conditions": "Green Bay's labor market remains structurally tight, with Brown County unemployment at 3.4% in August 2026 against a 4.2% national rate, even as the metro's civilian labor force holds near 178,800 and statewide manufacturing payrolls contract. Local WARN filings this year \u2014 including the 151-worker Ryder closure in June and the 32-worker Green Bay Converting layoff in April \u2014 have not loosened the broader talent pool enough to offset the scarcity showing up in network engineering and systems administration pay movements.", "implications": "Advertised pay for Systems Administrator ($85,201, up significantly) and Cybersecurity Analyst ($98,772, up significantly) locally is climbing faster than national medians, consistent with a metro where tight unemployment is forcing employers to pay up for infrastructure and security skills even as broader state job growth stalls. Network Engineer pay falling 83,968, down significantly, while national demand for the same role rises, suggests this skill set is becoming harder to source competitively in-market \u2014 a signal worth weighing against managed-services or regional outsourcing options for network operations. Consider reviewing whether security and sysadmin compensation bands reflect current advertised-pay momentum before the next hiring cycle, to avoid losing a candidate to a competing offer.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Early indicator", "body": "Watch whether September-October Green Bay MSA unemployment data, once released, confirms the May-to-August drift from 2.9% toward 3.4% \u2014 a continued rise would suggest loosening labor supply that could ease network engineering and sysadmin hiring pressure."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Track whether workers displaced by the Ryder and Green Bay Converting WARN filings surface in IT support or infrastructure candidate pools; manufacturing-adjacent technical staff sometimes transition into help desk or systems roles, which could soften Help Desk pay growth."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "National tech layoffs have already exceeded 133,000 workers year-to-date through late October, concentrated in large tech hubs. Monitor whether any of that displaced talent, particularly in cloud and AI-adjacent roles, begins surfacing in Wisconsin postings given the state's near-total in-person hiring norm."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Wisconsin's steep real wage decline (-5.1% year-over-year) alongside rising advertised pay for security and sysadmin roles locally creates a compensation compression risk across the broader IT department \u2014 watch for internal equity complaints from support staff whose pay has not kept pace."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 42809.0, "metro_p50": 107372.0, "metro_p75": 135554.25, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 145881.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Systems Administrator", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 67993.0, "metro_p50": 85200.8, "metro_p75": 90599.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 102503.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Network Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 66992.0, "metro_p50": 83968.0, "metro_p75": 90421.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 115757.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Software Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 111461.5, "metro_p50": 131175.0, "metro_p75": 144991.5, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 154403.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Help Desk/IT Support Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 41600.0, "metro_p50": 53557.0, "metro_p75": 58500.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 53129.0, "national_trend_direction": "down", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Cybersecurity Analyst", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 76826.0, "metro_p50": 98772.4, "metro_p75": 110363.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 107327.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "IT Project Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 81165.0, "metro_p50": 111823.0, "metro_p75": 115030.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 118149.8, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}], "industry_snapshot": [], "citations": [{"source_name": "Bureau of Labor Statistics / Wisconsin DWD", "source_url": null, "statement": "Brown County unemployment at 3.4% in August 2026"}, {"source_name": "WARN Act Tracker", "source_url": null, "statement": "Ryder Green Bay facility closure affecting 151 workers"}, {"source_name": "Layoffs.fyi / industry tracking", "source_url": null, "statement": "Tech layoffs exceeding 133,000 workers through October 21, 2026"}, {"source_name": "Wisconsin labor market research", "source_url": null, "statement": "98% of Wisconsin technology job postings require in-person work"}, {"source_name": "Wisconsin Examiner / BLS", "source_url": null, "statement": "Wisconsin real wage growth of -5.1% year-over-year, steepest among states"}, {"source_name": "Bureau of Labor Statistics", "source_url": null, "statement": "Green Bay MSA civilian labor force approximately 178,800 in May 2026"}], "methodology": "Advertised pay from active employer job postings, not survey data. WageScape's median is calibrated to correct for spurious low-value postings: distribution analysis shows roughly the lowest 10% of raw values are erroneous entries, so the reported median is the 60th percentile of raw advertised pay.", "edition_label": "November 2026", "files": {"html": "green-bay-wi-msa/information-technology/2026-10.html", "pdf": "green-bay-wi-msa/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-11-03T08:22:37.944743+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/green-bay-wi-msa/information-technology/2026-10.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/green-bay-wi-msa/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}